Automatic mine door



I. L. DEALY. AUTOMATIC MINE DOOR. APPLICATION FILED APR. 10. 1922.

; Patented Oct. 24, 1922. 1

2 SHEETSSHEET v l lll ll lllllh J. L. DEALY. AUTOMATIC MINE DOOR. APPLICATION FILED APR, 10, 1922.

Patented Oct. 24, 1922.

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JAMES L. IDEALY, OF CHANDLER. COLORADO, ASSIGNDR 0E ONE-HALF TO CHARLES I SALSBURY, Q75 CHANDLER, COLORADO.

AUTOMATIC MINE noon.

Application filed April 10, 1922. Serial No. 551.041.

To all ic ltmm't may concern:

Be it known that I, JAMns L. DEALY, a citizen of the United States of America. residing at Chandler. in the county of Fremont and State of Colorado, have invented certainnew' and useful Improvements in Automatic Mine Doors; and I do declare the following to be a full. clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to 1 make and use the same, referencebeing had to the accompanying drawings. and to the characters of reference marked thereon. which form a part of this specification.

This invention relates to mine doors and has re: erence to an automatically opening and closing door. I

Ininines it is necessaryfor safetys sake to provide doors between the various galleries so that if anexplosion of fire damp occurs the damage and fire resulting therefrom will be limited to certain chambers or gab leries and prevented from spreading. In nearly all. mines miniature railways are employed for transporting the coal or ore to r the hoists and in order to permit the cars to pass from one gallery to another the safety doors must be opened and it often happens that the doors are blocked and held in open position during the entire day and where night shifts are working dur ing the day and night with the result that the doors offered no protection whatever.

It is the object of this invention to produce a door that shall be automatic in its operation to the extent that it will open upon the approach of acar, remain'open while the car passes to the other side, and

With my door then automatically close.

- it is apparent that there will be no valil reason for leaving the door open as the men are not required to operate the same,

and therefore. the doors are always in closed position except when the car is passing through which is the only time that they are required to remain open. 7 I accomplish the above objects by means of an arrangement of parts which I will now describe in detail reference being had for the purpose to the accompanying drawin in which. v

I ig. 1 is a view looking towards the doors which are shown closed.

Fig. 2 is a view looking in the same di- Numeral 1 represents the floor of mine gallery, and 2 the roof thereof, while :3 represents the fire wall. the opening through which is closed by means of sliding doors 4 and 5. Doors 4 and 5 are hung from a tubular track 6 by means of hangers 7 in the manner common in the type of construction. The track 6 is secured to a timber 8, or where this timber is not used to the cement wall. In order to operatethe doors, I provide each one with a rack 9, and mount vertically near the outer edge of each door ashaft 10, which has secured thereto a pinion llfor engagement with the racks 9. Shafts 10 are rotatably mounted in suit-able bearings 12 and 13. If the shafts 10 are rotated in opposite directions the doors will either open or close, depending upon the direction of rotation. In order to rotate shafts 10, I provide each near the lower end thereof with apinion 14- and cooperating therewith a rack 15 which is provided with rack teeth 16 on opposite sides whereby the movement of the rack longitudinally will rotate the shafts 1O 'inopposite directions. In order to impart to the rack 15 a tendency to moveathe doors to closed position, I attach to one end thereof a cable 17 which passes over a pulley 18 and is attached to one end of a bell crank lever 19 which is pivotally mounted at 20 and carries a weight 21 on its free end. The action of the weight 21 being to impart a tendency to the rack of moving towards the right, which movement rotates the shafts 10 in the direction required for closing the doors.

I will now describe the mechanism and arrangement of parts which I employ for the purpose of opening the doors whenever a car approaches them from either side. I

modify the usual railway by leaving one of the rails free to move with respect to the ties: This rail which I have indicated by numeral 22 is hinged at 23 to the end of rail. 24, and again at 25 to another section 28. Sections 22 and 26 are held from spreading; by means of rods 27. Thetie underneath the movable rail sections is cut away indicated at 28 and an angle 29 bolted to the rail for the purpose of serving as support for the rail when the car rests thereon. The reason for cutting away the tie and providing the nglc iron rest being that by this means lumps of coal or rocks which might lodge on the tie underneath the rail will not prevent the operation thereof. Connecting: the ends of pairs of adjacent ties as 30 and 31 are bearings 32 in which is rotatably moiilnted a bar 33 which has one end offset and reversely bent as shown in Fig. l, this reve'rsely bent portion serves as a support for the rail when it is in its elevated position. The other end of bar 33 is bent at right angles and formsan arm whose end is formed into an eye 36 to which a cable 37 attached. Cable passes around suitable pulleys 38 and has its end attached to the rack 15, the arrangement of theq iulleys being such that when the cable 37 is pulled by a sutlicient force it will more the rack '15 to the loft against the action of the weight 21. The length of cable 37 is adjusted so that when the doors are closed the arms 35,

1 will be held in substantially vertical posi open. On the other side of the doors 4-. and

5 there is a similar arrangement of rails supporting bars and cables the cable being connected by means of pulleys to the rack in such a manner that when a car a iproaches from that direction its weight will automatically open the door in the manner described. When the doors are opened by a car approaching from either direction its weight will cause the rail 26 to move down wardly until it rests upon the angles 29 and this will cause the rods 38 to turn, moving the rack 1.5 against the action of the weight 21. As the rack 15 moves the rail 26 on the other side of the door will move downwardly at the same rate until when the rail on one side of the door rests upon the angles 29 the other rail will also. So that the car willrails whereby they will automatically open whenever a car approaches from oneside or the other and which will automatically close as the car leaves. By the means above described 1t 15 unnecessary for the men to open or close the doors and therefore there is no excuse for leaving them open. The doors are therefore always in closed pos tion except when a car is pas ing through. i

l-faving nowdcscribed my invention what I claim as new is:

1. It safety door for mines comprisinpgin combination, a railway a pair of sliding doors adapted to cooperate to close the passageway along said railivay a rack mounted on each door, a shaft rotatably njiounted near the end of each door, a pinion on each shaft adapted to cooperate with said racks; ond pinion oneach shaft near the lower ends thereof a rack cooperating with each of said last named pinions, yielding means connected to said rack and adapted to move the same inn direction Yv'lllCli will cause the doors to close. One of the rails being movable in a vertical direction, means to hold the rail in elevated position when the doors are closed and means whereby the weight of the car on themovable rail will cause the doors to open and permit the car to pass 2. i i safety cool for mines comprising in combinatiom 'a railway, a pair of sliding doors adapted to cooperate to close the passageway along said railway a rack mounted on each door, a shaft rotatably mounted near the end of each door, a pinion on each shaft adapted to cooperate with said racks a second pinion on each shaft near the lower ends thereof a rackcooperating with each of said last named pinions, yielding means connected to said rack and adapted to move the same in a direction which will cause the doors to close; One of the rails being movable in a vertical direction, a bar rotstably mounted on said ties said bar having an offset reversely bent portion upon which the movable rail rests an arm extending at right angles to said ban a cable connected to said arm and. to said rack and means whereby the weight of a car on said rail rotates said bar and moves said rack in a direction to open the doors.

In testimony whereof I a'liii; my signature.

JAMES L. DEALY. 

